Out of jail and with the help of a team of villains, Charlie plans for the heist of the century to lift $4,000,000 under the noses of the Turin Polizei. The quintessential British caper film of the 1960s, The Italian Job is a flashy, fast romp that chases a team of career criminals throughout one of the bigge. The Italian Job PC. Car racing based on the cult film 'The Italian Job', where we move to the 70's and play the role of Charlie Croker, who soon after leaving prison decides to return to his 'profession'.
The Year 1999 was a wonderful time to be a young go-getter in the games industry. Well I remember touring that year's popular ECTS trade exhibition in London's swanky Olympia, marvelling at all the wonderful games due for release that autumn. Games such as Max Payne, Duke Nukem Forever, Prey and Warcraft Adventures. Well, one out of four isn't bad (even if Max was a year and a half late).
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But the biggest thrill of all came from the most unlikely of sources. Wandering into the SCi booth, mainly to see how they were continuing to flog the dead horse of Carmageddon, we were stunned to see the facial visage of Lord Michael of Caine glaring down at us with the words 'The Italian Job' perched above his shoulder as though they were grafted on at birth. They hadn't gone and actually done it had they? Turned out they had. SCi had snapped up the rights and the game was on its way. And then, just when the fields of Elysium were looming large, the PR rep on the stand hit us with the two cruellest words in the English language: PlayStation only.
Suddenly everything changed. Games no longer seemed quite as fun. The sun didn't shine quite so brightly in the morning. Newborn babies started to get uglier. Porn trends moved from large breasted blondes towards waif-like post-teens with tiny man chests. Things just weren't right with the world anymore. Sure the PR guy assured us that a PC version was being developed, 'at the same time', but no one believed him.
The Italian Job meant everything to us at ZONE. Our then-editor would forever shout the 'bloody doors off' quote whenever anyone did something over the top. Caine posters adorned every filing cabinet in the office. Camp Freddie was the nickname of our art assistant. It was like a hammer blow to our hearts.
Ahhh, Bless
Luckily for us all, the console kidz knew a good thing when it hit them and thanks to the madcap driving romp being a fairly sizeable hit with PlayStation owners, SCi decided to let developers Pixelogic get to work on a PC version. Only a year or so later, but we're patient folk at ZONE. Especially if it turns out to be any good.
First question is obviously how you go about turning a film like The Italian Job into a game. The only really obvious bit is the car chase at the end, hardly enough for a whole game. So it would seem, thus Pixelogic has 'interpreted' some of the other aspects of the plot and expanded the horizons a little.
The main game mode is obviously The Job, in which you start by practising the driving moves needed for the heist and recruiting your team. All of which is set in '60s London of course. Cue tearaway chases through notable traffic landmarks such as Trafalgar Square, pursued by Z Cars-style coppers.
At heart it's a mission-based driving game in the Driver mould. Practise your moves in Blighty, then drive through Italy dealing with the local mafia, pull off the heist in the jam-packed streets of Turin, then finally escape by bus across the Swiss Alps. And we all know what happens then, right?
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Tickety-Boo
It's not just gold heists in Europe though. For those that don't want to risk Mr Bridger's resources straight away, Pixelogic is including several other game modes to try out. Free Driving is pretty much exactly that, driving at your own pace through the pretty scenery, but with all sorts of hidden extras and secret paths to discover. Checkpoint racing puts a Midtown Madness spin on the game, while the Stunt Course lets you put the Mini Coopers, luxury sports cars and just about every other vehicle that made an appearance in the film (even the football van), through their paces in a variety of challenge - most of which involve the car's wheels leaving the ground at some point.
Finally there's the intriguing Party Mode which adds some much-needed multiplayer fun to the proceedings. SCi won't confirm exactly what form this takes (ie whether it's network/lnternet-playable or not) but there's not likely to be much chance of any co-op shenanigans with the Turin Polizei. Which would have been fun. On the PlayStation, most of these modes could only be unlocked by completing the main story-based game. Whether the same holds true for the PC version we'll have to wait and see.
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Which also goes for the spirit of the game. Driving familiar-looking cars around familiar-looking scenery is one thing. Whether Pixelogic can capture the real essence of the film, the tongue-in-cheek humour, that plain sense of fun and good times, the feel-good factor that surroundsevery viewing of the boys pulling it off is something else entirely. PlayStation gamers are a lot less discerning than we PC owners tend to be, but our hopes are high for this one. Like we said at the start, it means a lot to us.
One Last Thing
Incidentally, I've tried to go through this whole preview without regurgitating all those familiar quotes from the film. It's been hard and frankly I don't think I can hold out any longer. So if you'll just indulge me... 'You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!' 'Get your skates on mate!' 'Look happy you stupid bastards, we won didn't we?' 'Are they big? I like 'em big.' 'You must have shot an awful lot of tigers...' '...Yes, I used a machine gun.' 'We're the selfpreservation society.' 'Hold on lads, I've got a great idea.' And, of course, 'Camp Freddie you all know.' Thank you. I feel so much better now.
